In 2005, Bruce Banner tested a formula for the Bio-Tech Force Enhancement Project on
himself, combining Gamma Radiation with a substance based on Abraham Erskine's Super
Soldier Serum.
Unfortunately, after administering a large dose, Banner turned into a massive green creature
of incredible strength and resilience but little intelligence, who maintained his form
through rage and adrenaline.
Confused and angry, the Hulk, as he became known, destroyed the lab, injuring girlfriend
Betty Ross.
When the attack was over and the creature calmed, he once again became Bruce Banner,
who was devastated to learn of all that occurred.
Under threat of capture by the military, Banner fled to Canada, and had another incident,
transforming into the Hulk when confronted by border security.
In New York, Matt Murdock met and fell in love with Elektra Natchios, and together broke
into the penthouse of the criminal Roscoe Sweeny.
Tying him to a chair, Elektra encouraged Matt to exact revenge for the murder of his father
years earlier.
And while Murdock enjoyed beating Sweeny with his fists, he was unwilling to kill him, causing
Elektra to flee as he called the cops, ending their relationship.
In 2006, Bruce Banner was chased across Canada until he left and travelled around the world
to escape his pursuers.
Later this year, the highly skilled SHIELD agent Akela Amador, protégé of Phil Coulson,
was captured by the criminal Vanchat and sold to Hydra for experimentation.
In 2007, Anatoly and Vladimir Ranskahov escaped from Utkin Prison in Russia, by fashioning
weapons from the bones of their dead cellmate Alexei.
Though they made their original fortune in Moscow, they decided to start new lives in
New York.
Unable to capture Bruce Banner, Thaddeus Ross began to work with SHIELD and Stark Industries,
hoping to develop a way to find and neutralize the threat.
After going through the process of Terrigenesis, Eva Belyakov developed super strength, and
was trained to use her powers by Jiaying, leader of the Inhuman sanctuary known as Afterlife.
However, in 2008, relations between them strained, when Jiaying refused to transform her daughter
Katya, claiming she was too mentally unstable to go through the process.
Outraged, Eva stole several terrigen crystal and put her daughter through Terrigenesis
without the necessary preparations to train her in these new powers.
As a result, Katya developed the ability to sense the emotions of others, and gain control
of their actions through touch.
This overwhelming power soon drove the girl to madness, developing a hunger for pain,
which led her mother to acquire victims, whose pain she could consume.
Hoping to evade capture by SHIELD, Eva fled with her daughter to Bahrain, where they killed
many more and caused further chaos, until they were both slain by Melinda May, who was
nicknamed The Cavalry, for saving the lives of her fellow agents.
Yet May hated the name as it reminded her of killing a young child, leaving her with
a deep sense of guilt that led her abandon field work and take a desk job.
Continuing to train under the mentorship of John Garrett, Grant Ward served in the Russia-Georgia
war as an agent of SHIELD, though his true loyalty was to Hydra.
In America, Obidiah Stane, the second most powerful man at STARK industries hired the
terrorist organization Ten Rings to kill Tony Stark while on a business trip to Afghanistan,
in order to take over the company he helped build.
Although Tony was badly injured, Ten Rings forced another of their captives, Dr. Ho Yinsen,
to save his life, and so he combined an electromagnet with a car battery, and surgically implanted
this small device into his chest to stop the shrapnel from doing further damage near his
heart.
For a time this saved him, but Tony quickly realized he needed a more longterm source
of power, creating a mini version of the arc reactor developed by his father and Anton
Vanko.
Although Ten Rings, ordered Stark and Yinsen to build weapons, they instead built a suit
of battle armor to help them escape.
Unfortunately, the Doctor had to sacrifice himself in order to buying Tony the time needed
to finish the project and don the suit.
After engaging the terrorist, Stark heard Yinsen’s final words, asking him not waste
the life he was being given.
Deeply moved by the experience, Tony Stark’s first major announcement after returning to
America, was that Stark Industries would no longer manufacture weapons of war.
Given the enormous financial cost they would pay, Obidiah Stane used this as evidence against
in his continued attempt to takeover the company, even developing his own battle armor, based
on the materials recovered from Afghanistan.
Stark, working on his own battle armor technology, then tested out his Mark III design by flying
to Afghanistan and defeating a Ten Rings cell attacking the city of Gulmira.
Wearing the suits they each developed, Stark, then fought and defeated Stane, in the duel
of Los Angeles with each of them earning nicknames from the public.
The next day, ignoring prepared remarks written by SHIELD, Tony Stark revealed himself as
Iron Man.
After the press conference, Nick Fury, director of SHIELD asked him to join a new project
named the Avengers Initiative, but Stark declined.
In the African nation of Wakanda, King T’chaka retired from his duties as the Black Panther,
passing on the mantle to his son and heir T’challa, who was charged with the protection
of their people.
T’challa then immediately went to work helping their warriors quell violence near the border
that came as a result of the Second Congo War.
After defeating the rebels, he was sent on a mission to south America where a terrorist
named Zanda had kidnapped a number people, including two Wakandan citizens, which made
the situation his responsibility.
Yet with the aid of Okoye, Zanda was killed and the hostages rescued.
Forever changed by the night he was humiliated and dismissed by Tony Stark, Aldrich Killian
dedicated himself to creating his own corporate empire, working with Maya Hansen to develop
a new form of Extremis, which could manipulate DNA in order to heal disabilities, regrow
limbs and much more.
Confident in his creation, Aldrich Killian experimented on himself, recovering from the
many maladies that plagued him all his life.
In New York, Coleen Wing was recruited into the Hand by Bakuto, one of its founding members.
Working for SHIELD, Natasha Romanoff was ordered to escort a nuclear scientist out of Iran,
however they were tracked down by the Winter Soldier who shot Black Widow so that the bullet
would pass through her and kill the target.
Although the Scientist died, Natasha survived the incident.
In Russia, Anton Vanko, one of the original creators of arc reactor technology, died in
poverty, with his son Ivan vowing to take revenge upon Tony Stark.